Thawing a Frozen Heart
by bacta.junkie
Summary: "I thought if I could make the outside of me cold again, maybe my inside would be warmer by comparison. It didn't work." What if Anna's heart didn't actually thaw? Rated T for implied frick-frack and attempted suicide. Seriously, why do so many of my stories have attempted suicide? I have a problem.


**Yoohoo! New Elsanna story here!**

**I wrote this about a week ago and totally forgot, so I'm posting it now, at 2:30 AM, as an alternative to sleeping in preparation for the math mid-term I have in seven hours. **

**This story is inspired by a rather popular and entirely different story under Harry Potter, I won't say which, but if you can guess it then I'll give you chocolate. No, not really, but that'd be nice, wouldn't it?**

**I noticed a great deal of attention was being given to Elsa's anxiety and depression and other such conditions- and rightfully so, since that was a major part of her whole character in that wildly successful movie we all love so much- but I wanted to explore the alternative; I wanted to see what would happen if Anna, rather than Elsa, were the one who was suffering.**

**So yes, Anna's condition in this story is a metaphor for depression, and no, I don't recommend kissing people as a cure for depression- I mean, it works pretty will for me, but there's (and pardon the pun here) not a snowball's chance in hell that that's a real treatment. I mean, it totally should be, because let's face it kissing is awesome and if we could treat depression by kissing people the world would be a much better place, but we can't because it's not so please don't go kissing sad people without their permission first.**

**The characters and setting described within this story are the sole property of the Disney corporation and the evil mutant rodent that controls it.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"Anna? Are you in there?"

She was not.

Anna was nowhere to be found. It was nearly midnight, if the grandfather clock in the ballroom was any indication, but despite looking all over the castle for her, Elsa simply could not find her sister. And as the empty room before her suggested, she wasn't in her bedroom either.

Elsa began to grow worried. Anna was prone to wandering off, but it was never far, and never so late at night. It wouldn't be too big of a deal, except it was the middle of January, and there was a terrible blizzard roaring outside- this one not born of fear, but of nature.

The queen wandered the empty halls of the castle, desperate to find her missing sibling. She found herself in a corridor overlooking the garden when her eyes, adjusting to the darkness outside, picked up something through the flurries of snow. A flash of brownish-goldish-reddish hair.

With not a moment to waste, Elsa sprinted to the nearest exit- no small feat in heels made of ice, especially considering the door was a floor below her. She burst into the garden, the wind howling around her, and with a thrust of her arms outwards from her sides, the storm stopped abruptly. In the seven months since her coronation, she'd made great progress in controlling her powers; an act like the one she'd just performed would've been well out of reach of her abilities before.

Sitting on a stone bench beneath a tree, shivering uncontrollably, not wearing a coat or even shoes, the princess looked up to spot her big sister with her 'act of God' face on.

"Anna, what on earth are you doing out here?"

Unable to respond, or even look the queen in the face, she just sat and shivered.

Elsa let out an exasperated sigh and helped Anna off the bench, practically throwing the poor girl over her shoulders in her effort to get her inside. Indeed, by the time they were in the building and Elsa allowed the storm to recommence, she was carrying the princess in her arms. Anna was cold as ice, but luckily this time it was only on the surface.

The queen carried her sister to the warmest place in the castle: the kitchen. A few royal cooks were up preparing the following day's meal; Elsa requested two mugs of hot chocolate and some privacy.

"Okay," she began again once Anna had stopped shivering and downed two mugs of the warm, delicious liquid. "Once more. Why were you out there?"

There was no malice in her voice, no residual anger or even confusion. Her tone was exceedingly sympathetic, gentle in a way only Anna was privy to.

Anna mumbled something quietly.

"What was that? Please, Anna, just tell me."

"You wouldn't- it's just, it's stupid," she stared into her empty mug.

"Anna, you could've died out there." Elsa reached for Anna's face, turning it gently to look her sister in the eyes. "Please. You can trust me. Whatever it is, I promise it won't upset me."

"Well…" the princess began. "I thought it was just, I don't know, residual cold. I mean, I was frozen solid. I was bound to be cold for at least a few hours afterwards, right? But then…" She took a deep breath. "I never warmed up."

"What do you mean?" Elsa asked, concern edging into her voice.

"I never warmed up, Elsa. I've been cold as ice, all the way to the core, every minute since I thawed. It's like I'm still frozen, like a part of me never thawed, and I can't explain why or how, but no matter what I do it just doesn't work. I've gotten close enough to fires that I burned myself, taken baths so hot they left blisters. I thought…" there were tears growing in her eyes now. "I thought if I could make the outside of me cold again, maybe my inside would feel warmer by comparison. It didn't work."

There was a heavy silence between them. For several long moments, neither of them moved.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Come on, Elsa! You spent thirteen years locked in your room because you hurt me once, by accident, trying to stop me from hurting myself! If I'd told you a part of me was still frozen, you'd have immediately blamed yourself and then shut me out again 'for my own good'." She said the last part in a mocking, sarcastic tone.

"Well, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to help." Elsa stood, taking her sister's hand. "Does anything help? Is there nothing that makes you feel warm?"

Anna blushed slightly, blinking. "My hand is pretty warm right now."

Elsa smiled. "Come to bed with me. I'll keep you warm, I promise."

"Elsa, you have magical ice powers. I'm fairly certain the cure to the ice inside me isn't physical contact with the literal goddess of winter."

Elsa blushed red, as she always did when Anna called her that- she strongly suspected that was her reason for doing so. "You said your hand is warm, right? I'll leave the fireplace burning, we'll use seven blankets or something ridiculous. A sleepover, just like when we were kids." She pulled the princess into her arms, hugging her close. "I'm going to help you through this. Whatever it takes."

Anna let her arms snaked around Elsa's neck, and couldn't help but notice that she felt just a little bit warmer.

* * *

It took a lot more than Elsa thought. Anna had become obsessively clingy; she only let go of Elsa's hand to eat, or when the queen had official business to attend to that the princess simply could not sit through. Elsa understood- she'd been through more than enough pain and turmoil in her life to sympathize. But it killed her to see her little sister like this. She felt so helpless, so useless; no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't keep Anna warm.

Magical snow powers were crap at thawing frozen things.

Still, she allowed Anna to indulge herself in whatever the younger thought would help; if Anna said sitting in the ice box would help, she'd hold Anna's hand in the ice box, and if Anna said they should try a sauna, she'd hold Anna's (sweaty) hand in there too. And when Elsa retired to her bed to find the princess sliding in beside her, she allowed Anna to cling to her like she might disappear.

At first she thought it was because they'd been apart for so long, but when Anna told her how warm she felt when Elsa had her arms wrapped around her little sister, Elsa allowed herself to make their hugs a little more frequent and a little bit longer, and she never really protested when Anna just started sleeping in her bed all the time.

And if holding Anna like that made her feel warm inside too, well, she'd just consider that a bonus and try not to think about it.

* * *

But months passed, and summer returned to Arendelle, and still Anna shivered in heavy coats by the fireplace. It was unhealthy, and clearly not natural. She was sweating away her weight, and she wasn't very heavy to start with. It didn't help that she barely ate anymore.

Even her lingering embraces with Elsa weren't doing any lasting good; the minute they were apart, she'd feel the cold creeping back into her system, like that feeling you get when you're really warm and you drink something ice cold and you can feel it go down your throat, except through her entire body. It was exhausting, and more alarmingly, it felt like she was slowly dying.

She didn't want Elsa to worry.

Unfortunately, neither of them had ever been very good at communicating with each other. It seemed like every time something bad happened to one that the other could somehow blame herself for, their first instinct was "shut her out. Don't let her know."

It must've run in the family.

So when Anna realized that there was nothing Elsa could do, she started avoiding Elsa like the plague. It killed Anna to know that her sister would feel so confused, just as she did when Elsa shut her out all those years ago, but it was worth it knowing it would spare her sister of the pain of losing her. She knew seeing her like this made Elsa feel so helpless. She couldn't stand that look in her big sister's eyes.

The Snow Queen, of course, had other plans.

* * *

It all went down on a warm evening in July, much like the one of Elsa's coronation a year prior. It was the most ironic possible weather conditions, given the circumstances.

Anna was freezing herself in the ice box when Elsa finally found her. They hadn't spoken in nearly three weeks.

"Anna, finally!" Elsa threw her arms up in defeat, bringing a hand to her face. "I've been worried sick! Why are you avoiding me?!"

Anna considered her options. Elsa was blocking her only exit. On the other hand, there was one other way out of this room, and it was kind of why she was in there in the first place.

She sighed. She knew this moment would come eventually.

"I didn't want you to see me like this," the princess muttered weakly, averting her sister's piercing gaze.

"What are you talking about?" the queen said. "You've been like this for months. How is this different?" she gestured to Anna's pale, thin form curled up in a corner of the frozen room.

Anna winced. "I'm dying, Elsa, and you can't help, and I just can't stand that look on your face- that one right there, where you look at me like you'd do anything to help me if you could just figure out what would. You look so helpless, and I can't bear it." She stood, shaking. "Leave me, please. I don't want you to see me freeze. Not again."

Elsa shook her head, adamantly refusing to go. "Anna, I can help. I've had a lot of time to figure out what went wrong, and it led me somewhere so obvious I can't believe I didn't go there months ago. The trolls, Anna."

Anna's hand went to her face, covering her mouth as a soft gasp escaped her lips. Of course. Grandpabbie would know what to do.

"What did they tell you?"

"The same thing they told you a year ago. The same thing you told me, the same thing I really, really should've figured out the minute you brought this to my attention. Love will thaw, Anna. An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart."

Anna, to her credit, managed to make confused look even more adorable than usual. "I still don't understand."

The queen shook her head, smiling. "I was so stupid, Anna." She reached out to her younger sister, pulling the girl closer to her-

And then they were kissing, and Elsa's hands were knotting in Anna's hair, and all of a sudden Anna felt like she was on fire. Warmth shot through her body, denying the ice that had spent so long festering within her from ever returning.

The rest of the night was a blur. When she next regained full control of her senses, she was in Elsa's bed again. It was dark out, she must've fallen asleep at some point.

She looked up to find her sister softly stroking her hair, smiling down at her pleasantly. "How do you feel, Anna?"

Anna smiled back, blushing. "Warm."

* * *

"What's so important that you had to drag me out of bed at this hour, Elsa?"

It was the end of August, and summer was coming to an end, but Elsa wasn't ready to give up the warmth just yet. She turned to take in her sister for a moment. Anna looked… healthy. She'd gained so much color to her skin, and she was fitting into her dresses again. She was eating, and dancing, and smiling and laughing.

She was warm again.

"You'll see. Don't worry about your things, they're already on the boat."

"What boat-" but the question was answered for her when Elsa brought her to a stop next to the gangplank of a rather large, regal-looking ship flying the royal seal just beneath the flag of Arendelle.

"I chartered a ship. I paid the captain an absurd amount of money and told him to drop us off someplace tropical and not to come back for two weeks." The queen smirked, a slight blush tinting her cheeks. "If you're not positively burning by the end, believe me, it won't be for lack of trying."

* * *

**I once had a friend tell me that a disproportionately high number of my stories end in death, kissing, or implied frick-frack. Several end in those last two together, like this one, although I usually don't have death _and _sex in the same story. Who do you think I am, John Green? (_OHHHHHHHHHHH FAULT IN OUR STARS JOOOOKE)_  
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**Please review and let me know what you thought of it, unless your review is 'incest is wrong', at which point I will tell you that they are fictional characters and you really need to get a life because telling strangers on the internet that things are wrong in no way validates your life or your opinions. In fact, it kind of makes your life just a little bit more sad. Seriously. Go join a bowling league or something.**


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